Rolling to Damacy

Last year, an eccentric Japanese rolling game called Katamari Damacy arrived in North America to no expectations. But before you could say "the King of All Cosmos is a star-destroying drunk," under-stocked stores were setting-up waiting lists, awards were flooding in and game geeks were dancing to its curious J-pop, jazz and techno soundtrack. It didn't take long for Namco to, er, roll out the psychedelic sequel We ? Katamari. The original's pristine simplicity — increase the size of a sticky ball, the titular katamari, by rolling it over everything from thumbtacks to kitties to entire buildings — is still in effect, though now you can push a sumo wrestler, go underwater and, eventually, roll up the sun. They even upped the absurdity by going meta — the sequel's plot, such as it is, revolves around how much people loved the first game, though there's also a bizarre backstory about the King's early boxing career. Or something. It all adds up to hours of rainbow-coloured, acid-soaked lunacy.